Finn Bálor
On 15 May 2014, Bálor (as Prince Devitt) was reported to have signed with WWE and would join NXT, the promotion's developmental territory. On 28 July, WWE officially confirmed Devitt's signing, announcing he would report to NXT that same day. On 24 September, his new ring name was revealed to be Finn Bálor, derived from Irish mythological figures Fionn mac Cumhaill and Balor (the latter is also Gaelic for "Demon King"). Bálor made his NXT debut the next day, aiding Hideo Itami against The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor). In his debut match on 23 October, he and Itami defeated Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd. After feuding with The Ascension, Bálor and Itami defeated them at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution on 11 December, where he also debuted his signature body paint. Bálor then entered an NXT Championship number one contender's tournament, defeating Curtis Axel in the first round, Itami in the semi-finals, and Adrian Neville in the finals at NXT TakeOver: Rival. Bálor received his title match against Kevin Owens on 25 March, but was unsuccessful. After defeating Tyler Breeze on 20 May at NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable, Bálor received another title shot against Owens and at The Beast in the East in Tokyo, Japan and defeated Owens to win the NXT Championship. Bálor defeated Owens in a ladder match to retain the title at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn on 22 August. Bálor later entered the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament in August, pairing with Samoa Joe and defeating The Lucha Dragons (Sin Cara and Kalisto) in the first round, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady in the quarter-finals, Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson in the semi-finals and Baron Corbin and Rhyno in the finals at NXT TakeOver: Respect to win the tournament. On the 4 November episode of NXT, Bálor defended the NXT Championship against Apollo Crews, but the match ended in a no contest after Baron Corbin interfered, attacking both men. Joe came out and chased Corbin away before turning on Bálor and attacking him, which ignited a feud between the two. At NXT TakeOver: London, Bálor defeated Joe to retain the title. On 1 April at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, Bálor retained the NXT Championship in a rematch with Joe. On 17 April, Bálor became the longest reigning NXT Champion in history by surpassing Neville's previous record of 287 days. On 21 April, Bálor lost the NXT Championship to Joe at a live event in Lowell, Massachusetts, ending his reign at 292 days. At NXT TakeOver: The End, Bálor lost to Joe in the first ever NXT steel cage match in a rematch for the NXT Championship, marking his first TakeOver loss, and subsequently his first loss under his "Demon" persona. Bálor wrestled his final NXT match on 30 July, teaming with Shinsuke Nakamura to defeat Bobby Roode and Samoa Joe. On 19 July 2016, Bálor was drafted to the Raw brand as the fifth overall pick in the 2016 WWE draft, later declaring that he should have been the first pick. He made his first appearance for the brand on the 25 July episode of Raw (on his 35th birthday), where he won the right to compete for the newly established WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam by first defeating Rusev, Cesaro, and Kevin Owens in a fatal four–way match and then defeating Roman Reigns, who had won a similar fatal four–way match. At SummerSlam, Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the inaugural Universal Champion and win his first world title. The day after, WWE reported that he sustained a shoulder injury during the match and an MRI revealed a labrum tear that would require surgery, which was successful. Because of this, it was expected that Bálor would be out four to six months, thus Raw General Manager Mick Foley later announced on Twitter that Bálor would be relinquishing his newly won WWE Universal Championship due to his injury. While recovering from his injury, Bálor would appear on the WWE Network–exclusive United Kingdom Championship Tournament event. On 22 February 2017, Bálor returned to NXT to assist Shinsuke Nakamura, who was outnumbered by Andrade "Cien" Almas and Bobby Roode. On 10 March, Bálor made his in–ring return at a live event in a six–man tag team match, teaming with Chris Jericho and Sami Zayn to defeat Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Triple H. Bálor made his television return after WrestleMania 33 on the 3 April episode of Raw, where he teamed with his former rival Seth Rollins as the two defeated Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe in a tag team match. Over the following weeks, Bálor would score victories over Jinder Mahal and Curt Hawkins while also receiving an ominous warning from Bray Wyatt and confronting Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. On 4 June at Extreme Rules, Bálor competed in a fatal five–way extreme rules match to determine the number one contender for Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship, in which Bálor was defeated after he passed out from Joe's coquina clutch. In the weeks leading up to SummerSlam, Bálor began a feud with Elias Samson after he inadvertently interrupted one of his performances. This led to a match between the two, where Samson defeated Bálor in a no disqualification match after interference provided by Bálor's rival Bray Wyatt. In a match between Bálor and Wyatt, Wyatt was able to score a victory over Bálor. The two faced off in a rematch, at SummerSlam, where Bálor returned his Demon King character and defeated Wyatt. The feud between the two continued throughout the following months, that led to another match, at No Mercy where Bálor once again defeated Wyatt. The two were also set to face in a rematch between Bálor's Demon King and Wyatt's Sister Abigail at TLC, however, Wyatt was ruled out for the event on 20 October due to an illness, and was instead replaced by AJ Styles. Although he defeated Styles, the two showed mutual respect and gestured the "Too Sweet" hand symbol to each other following the match. In November, at the Survivor Series event, Bálor took part of the traditional interbrand five–on–five elimination match as part of Team Raw where he was the fifth man eliminated by Randy Orton, although his team was ultimately victorious. On the 1 January 2018 episode of Raw, Bálor teamed with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson as the trio defeated Elias and The Miztourage (Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas) in a six–man tag team match. The following week, the trio officially reunited and formed the Bálor Club. That same night, they defeated Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns and Raw Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan in a six–man tag team match. On 28 January, at the 2018 Royal Rumble, Bálor entered his first royal rumble match at number 2, lasting over 57 minutes and eliminating four participants before being eliminated by John Cena. A month later, Bálor competed for the first time in an elimination chamber match at the namesake pay–per–view, where he entered last but was the second participant eliminated by Braun Strowman. Throughout March and April, Bálor started a short feud with The Miz and Seth Rollins over the Intercontinental Championship, which led to a triple threat match at WrestleMania 34 (which was also Bálor's WrestleMania debut) where Rollins was the one who captured the belt. Three weeks later, at the Greatest Royal Rumble event, Bálor once again unsuccessfully challenged for the Intercontinental Championship in a fatal four–way ladder match against Rollins, Miz and Samoa Joe. In June, Bálor competed in a Money in the Bank ladder match for the first time in his career, however, the match was ultimately won by Braun Strowman. After the Money in the Bank pay–per–view, Bálor engaged in a feud with Baron Corbin, whom he defeated on two different occasions—in July (at the Extreme Rules event) and in August (at the SummerSlam event under his "Demon King" persona). One night after SummerSlam, on the 20 August episode of Raw, Bálor was finally awarded with his Universal Championship rematch against the newly crowned champion Roman Reigns, however he was unsuccessful in regaining the title. Throughout the next few months, Bálor would compete in various matches against competitors such as Jinder Mahal and Bobby Lashley. In November, Bálor started a feud with Drew McIntyre who acted as if he was trying to save him from an attack by Lashley only to attack him himself. During that time, Bálor was announced as part of Team Raw for the traditional interbrand five–on–five elimination match at Survivor Series, where he was the first man from the team to be eliminated by Rey Mysterio. On 16 December, at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs event, Bálor gained revenge over McIntyre as he defeated him in a singles match after interference by his former ally Dolph Ziggler. After the match, Ziggler would attack Bálor backstage after the latter implied that he didn't need his help to beat McIntyre. This sparked a match between the two, that took place the following night on Raw, which ended in a no contest as McIntyre would attack both of them. On the 17 December 2018 tapings of the 24 December 2018 edition of Raw, Bálor defeated Ziggler and McIntyre a triple threat match, ending the feud. On 12 January 2019 at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool, Bálor made a surprise appearance as Travis Banks's replacement in his match against Jordan Devlin, as Banks was attacked by Devlin earlier that day. Bálor subsequently defeated Devlin with the Coup de Grâce. On the 14 January episode of Raw, after Braun Strowman was removed from his Universal Championship title match against Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble after damaging Vince McMahon's limo, Bálor was booked in a fatal-4 way match against Drew McIntyre, John Cena and Baron Corbin to determine who would take Strowman's place against Lesnar at the pay-per-view, in which Bálor emerged victorious after pinning Cena. At the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Bálor was unsuccessful in defeating Lesnar after tapping out to the Kimura Lock. After the match, Lesnar attacked Bálor with three F-5s. On the Raw episode of 28 January, Bálor was interrupted by Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush while Bálor was addressing his loss, and was subsequently attacked by Lashley, sparking a feud between the two. On 17 February at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Bálor defeated Lashley and Rush in a two-on-one handicap match to capture the Intercontinental Championship, after Bálor pinned Rush. Bálor faced Lashley on the 11 March edition of Raw in an Intercontinental championship rematch. Bálor lost the match and the championship to Lashley following interference from Lio Rush. On the 25 March edition of Raw, Bálor defeated Lashley and Jinder Mahal in a handicap match to gain a rematch for the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania 35. Bálor, using his demon persona, went on to defeat Lashley at WrestleMania and regained the Intercontinental championship. The following night on Raw, Bálor defeated the returning Sami Zayn in an impromptu title defense. In the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up, Bálor moved to SmackDown, making his debut on the 16 April edition of SmackDown Live, defeating Ali in a non-title match. The following week on 23 April, Bálor was victorious in a rematch against the returning Andrade. At Super Showdown, Balor defended his title against Andrade with his demon persona. On the Extreme Rules kick-off show, Bálor lost the championship to Shinsuke Nakamura. The next night on Raw, he was attacked by a returning Bray Wyatt now going under the gimmick of The Fiend. At SummerSlam, Balor lost to The Fiend. After a near two-month absence from television, Bálor made his return to WWE programming on the October 2 episode of NXT, confronting NXT Champion Adam Cole following the latter's title defense against Matt Riddle and officially announced his return to NXT. On the October 23 episode of NXT, Bálor turned heel for the first time in his WWE career, when he aided The Undisputed Era in attacking Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. On the November 13 episode of NXT, Bálor insulted the NXT roster by referring to them as “all boys who can't take a beating”, specifically mentioning Gargano and Matt Riddle. Riddle then attacked Bálor, who retreated. Later that night, Riddle assisted his then-WarGames partners Keith Lee and Ciampa against their scheduled opponents, The Undisputed Era. However, Bálor appeared and attacked Riddle. As a result, a match between the two was scheduled for NXT TakeOver: WarGames, where Bálor emerged victorious.Category:WWE Universal Champions Category:Intercontinental Champions Category:NXT Champions Category:Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Winners Category:NXT Superstars